


Double Whip

by FroldGapp



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: BMX, Keith (Voltron) is a Mess, Learning to Ride a Bike, Tumblr Prompt, practicing is hard yo, very few skillz come naturally wahhhh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-19
Updated: 2017-06-19
Packaged: 2018-11-16 01:52:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11243877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FroldGapp/pseuds/FroldGapp
Summary: Prodigy. Natural. Born to it.Shiro knows more than to assume Keith's wins come easy.Or, Keith Learns to Ride a Bike.





	Double Whip

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt for @amusingmurff on Tumblr.
> 
> Nae beta, loads of typos i'm sure. My tags are pish!

“Please don’t tell anyone.” 

Keith stood, long legs straddling a beat-up looking bicycle and gloved hands gripping the handlebars like he was trying to break his own fingers by will alone. Streamers trailed from the ends of the bars. The group had found the little BMX-looking bike lying on a dump behind a market they were passing through. It looked like an Earth bicycle, but the strange writing on the side suggested it was from further afield. They’d each taken turns making tire marks on the ground performing skids, wheelies, and jumps. Pidge laughing raucously when Lance overstretched himself and went over the handlebars in a mess of long limbs and curses.

It was only after Shiro tumbled from the bike having misjudged a trick that he noticed Keith was nowhere to be seen.

“Shiro. Please don’t tell anyone I don’t know how. Please don’t tell _Lance._ ”

Shiro smiled behind a finger curled against his lips.

“Shiro,” Keith groaned, moving to get off the bike.

“No, no! I’m sorry!” Shiro protested, chuckling. “I’m sorry. I won’t tell. I promise.”

With a huff, Keith settled his backside against the seat. “You’re laughing at me,” he said with a frown.

_You’re laughing at me._

If there were four words that could make Shiro feel like a giant prick, it was those four. Willful, rightfully proud of his own abilities, and cautious of judgement from people close to him, Keith seldom tried new things in public without studiously perfecting them in private first.

_Matron! Keith started eating before we all got our plates!_

_Takashi, go easy on him. He doesn’t know any better. Keith, when we’re at the dinner table we wait for others to be served before…_

“I’m sorry,” Shiro said, quiet. He approached Keith and lay a hand on his shoulder. Keith’s dark eyes canted to him, wary. The angle of his lanky frame suggested he might spring away at any second. “I think it’s cool you want to learn.” _This late_ , the words went unspoken.

“Just teach me already,” Keith grumbled, shrugging out of Shiro’s grip.

OoO

“That’s it! You’re getting it!” Shiro called, watching as Keith wobbled his way across Red’s hangar, the front wheel shunting this way and that as he tried to control his trajectory. It was strange to see him move with anything other than feline grace. He made a strange _hngh!_ sound when it looked like he might keel over, and every now and then he stuck his legs out either side to balance himself as the peddles spun madly on.

“It gets easier the faster you go!”

“Doesn’t everyth–” Keith began, but the distraction spooked him, and when he instinctively thrust his foot against the floor the momentum drove him forward and sideways off the bike.

Shiro darted towards him. 

Ducking and rolling off his shoulder then onto his knees, Keith lifted the fallen bike from behind his head and twisted at the waist, looking like he was about to toss it into the nearest wall. At the last moment he stopped himself and rested the bike in front of him instead, huffing. He pressed his forehead to the crossbar. “This is so dumb,” he said, growling.

Shiro tutted and knelt down beside him. He ran his hand down the knuckles of Keith’s spine, the t-shirt soaked through with anxious sweat. He knew it wasn’t exertion because this firebrand could go three rounds against the training bot and not break a sweat. “Come on,” Shiro said, rubbing a small circle on Keith’s back. “What’s going on? I haven’t seen you like this in years.”

“It’s–” He wiped his brow with the back of his hand. “It doesn’t matter. Let’s just keep going.”

Shiro studied him a beat longer then nodded, standing. He held out his hand. “Nobody’s perfect straight out of the gate, Keith.”

Blinking slowly like a cat in the sun, Keith considered taking the proffered hand then stood under his own power. “People like you don’t get to say things like that, Shiro.”

“Keith…”

“Come on,” he bit. “What did I do wrong, Shiro? Let’s go again. What did I do wrong?”

Deep breath. “Okay… Let’s try to get your speed up, that’ll help.”

OoO

Four months later, the paladins were back on their bike obsession and back in the hangars. Green’s this time. Together with Hunk, Pidge built a series of ramps. The six inhabitants of the Castle of Lions watched as Keith executed a double-whip backflip at the top of the ramp, looking for the world like he could legitimately fly, before sliding comfortably down the slope again.

“ _What_ ,” Lance groaned, bouncing his fist off Hunk’s arm. “He just _has_ to be a natural at everything.”

Shiro looked at Lance a moment, and sighed. He filed the Blue Paladin’s distraught face away for a later conversation. For now, the Black Paladin closed his eyes and listened to the thump of tires against the ramp.

***

 

Cheers!


End file.
